Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Kefir

I read Jay Bazuzi's personal blog. In his professional life he's a Microsoft employee working on the Visual Studio C# IDE. He's been talking about eating live (fermented) food recently, and I've found myself intrigued. When I went to Africa last summer, I took a probiotic supplement. Good bacteria in your intestines helps your body fend off potential unpleasantness, so I'm comfortable with the idea. So last night I ordered some kefir grains from a seller in Chicago. Kefir is a fermented milk drink. You put the grains (starter culture) in milk and let it sit at room temperature for 24 hours. The bacteria in the kefir breaks down the lactose. The bacteria also has the benefit of being able to colonize your intestines. That sounds good to me: a bacteria living in my intestines that can help my body break down lactose. I'm looking forward to this experiment!

3 comments:

[Imported comment* originally authored by Mike McD.] Please do post about your Kefir results. I have this suspision that I'm lactose intolerant. Yogurt helps sometimes, other times it doesn't. I would love to have little bacteria growing in my body that would help keep away the diarrhea.

[Imported comment* originally authored by Travis.] Nearly every adult is lactose intolerant to some degree. I can handle about one serving of dairy daily without getting gassy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactose_intolerance